Some may feel it was overkill - officers ended up making one arrest - but police defended the decision to deploy 100 officers for Sunday's Chester City v Shrewsbury Town football clash.

Reporter SAMANTHA PARKER joined officers to watch the operation against hooliganism.

In the lead up to the noon kick off at the Deva Stadium, the streets of Chester were relatively quiet - just the way the police like it.

There is a long history of problems between Shrewsbury Town and Chester City fans. At last year's fixture there were a number of alcohol-related problems including violent clashes, especially outside the stadium on Bumpers Lane.

This year teams of officers were on every street corner, looking out for 'high risk' characters and well known trouble makers.

A group of 20 lads aged between 14-17 were stopped outside McDonalds and searched as a precaution.

Elsewhere in the city, officers kept an eye on licensed premises who had agreed, under the Pubwatch scheme, to stay closed until the noon kick off.

A specialist team of five officers, including two Shrewsbury officers, were on call if any hooligans or 'high risk' people were spotted.

If a suspected hooligan was spotted, the team was deployed to the area to keep an eye on the situation.

The operation was run from the Silver Command centre based at the Town Hall. A team of three officers and a member of the city council's camera control team had a birds-eye view of the city and were able to co-ordinate the different groups of officers in the city centre.

Superintendent Paul McHugh said: 'On the match day there were significant numbers of 'risk' fans from both clubs.

'The risk supporters were known to the police teams involved in the match day operation. They were targeted and closely monitored all day.

'The Football League, Chester City Football Club and the local police work together to arrange fixtures. Where necessary we try to reduce potential risks by introducing control measures, like those seen on Sunday, with early kick off, keeping the pubs closed and making the match ticket only.'